One Afternoon
by Rid3r Chick
Summary: A fluffy one-shot where Alex and Ian spend some quality time together. This is really, really random so read at your own risk.


Hi guys! I just had this weird idea that I needed to get out of my head and this is the result. This is a one-shot and probably not too good. Basically, it's just some one-on-one time between Ian and Alex before things got dicey and Ian ended up dead and Alex took his place at "work." I felt that there needed to be some fluffy moments between them. Oh, well. Here it is.

**DISCLAIMER: Ian, John, Helen, and Alex Rider all belong to A.H. The plot, or lack there of, belongs to me, the happy author!**One Afternoon

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Ian stared at his desk without seeing it. It really didn't matter if he saw or not because he knew what was on it. To his left were pictures of him, his brother, and his brother's wife on the day of their wedding. John, wearing the traditional black tux, was looking at Helen like she was his last link to this world. Helen, on the other hand, was staring straight at the camera. Ian, as always, was standing next to his brother with a pleasant smile on his face. The picture next to that one was of Alex, his five-year-old nephew. In this particular picture, Alex looked so much like John that it hurt. To his right, files were stacked in two neat piles: one that needed to be read and reported on and another that needed to be burned.

Ian only came out of his deep thoughts when he heard the sound of feet running down the hall. Sure enough, there was a little knock on the door. Getting up with a sigh, he crossed the room and opened the door.

When the light from the room fell on him, the boy looked up and smiled a gap toothed smile. He had fair hair and brown eyes filled with laughter.

Ian opened the door wider before he spoke.

"What can I do for you, Alex?"

"Well," he said walking around his uncle and into the office. He sat down on Ian's desk chair and swirled around a few times before continuing with his answer. "I'm hungry."

Ian observed the boy for a moment, seeing who he could become in the next few years. It hurt his heart but he knew that what was coming was necessary.

"Really now?"

"Yes."

Ian smiled as Alex met his gaze head on.

"What do you fancy eating?" he asked and he squatted down to Alex's level.

"Fish and chips!" he sang gleefully.

Ian rolled his eyes in an exaggerated manner.

"You're going to turn into fish and chips if you don't stop eating them all of the time."

Alex's brown eyes got really big as he stopped spinning around.

"I can turn into a…a fish?!"

"No, silly," he said but Alex still wasn't convinced. "I was just fooling about when I said that. You can not turn into a fish, okay? Now go put your shoes on so we can go."

Alex hopped out of the chair and walked slowly to the door. Before he left, he turned around and pinned Ian with a frosty glare.

"You wouldn't lie to me, would you?"

Ian looked at his nephew. He saw the tension around his eyes, John's eyes. It seemed as if Alex had stopped breathing in his wait for his answer. With a deep breath, Ian shook his head.

"I wouldn't lie to you ever, Alex. I love you too much to do such a thing," he said.

Alex looked at him a second longer before the look vanished completely off of his face. He nodded once and skipped out of the room and down the hall to his room

888

Ian took Alex to a small café not too far from their Chelsea home. Instead of eating there, he had their food wrapped to go so they could eat in the park. When they got to the park, they walked over to the picnic tables. During the whole walk, Alex chattered non stop.

"You should have seen it, Ian! Bryan made the goal right before the ref called the game. I thought we were going to lose, but Bryan helped us to win!"

After a while, Ian just tuned him out, but he caught the gist of the conversation.

"Hey, Alex?"

"Yeah?" he asked looking up from the ants on the table.

"How do you feel about starting karate sometime soon?"

Ian watched the excitement come over Alex's face. It seemed as if his ultimate wish had come true.

"Do you mean it? I mean really mean it?" he asked, practically bouncing on the bench.

"Of course I mean it. Why shouldn't I?"

Alex quickly looked down and mumbled something unintelligible.

"What did you say?"

"I said, sometimes you make promises and you don't keep them," he said eyes still downcast.

"Look at me," Ian said. He waited until brown eyes met his blue ones. "This is one promise I will keep. You have my word."

Alex bounced off the bench and threw his arm around Ian.

"Thank you so much! This is so cool. I can't wait to tell Bryan Monday!"

Ian smiled. He was happy that he could still make Alex smile. Karate was something that all boys wanted to do, and Alex was no exception. He watched as Alex imitated various martial artists and their moves from action films. He threw away their fish wrappers and grabbed the ball by his foot.

"Hey, lad. How about a football match?" he said as he started to dribble the ball forward.

Alex stopped kicking at invisible attackers and charged over to Ian and quickly stole the ball back.

"You can't catch me!" he cried as he kicked the ball around.

"You're right! I can't!" Ian said lagging behind.

Alex laughed and missed the ball when he tried to kick it into an imaginary goal.

They spent the rest of the afternoon just like that. Uncle and nephew running around an empty field kicking around a football and having fun. Briefly Ian wondered how long this relationship would last before Alex found out the truth about his job and "fun" was just another word in the English dictionary. He shook his head and focused on the present and the smile dominating Alex's face. There would be time in the future for all of his skeletons to make their appearance so for now, he would leave them where they were: in his closet.

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Like it? Hate it? Review and let me know. Who knows? There might be another completely random and fluffy story coming from me this morning (sometime before 2 am). Peace. -RC


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